Monday, February 6, 2012

Leftovers.

Since my last post, I've been writing in my journal pretty faithfully every day. It's only been a few days, but the more I write, the easier it is. It's not so hard to come up with what the most meaningful part of my day was, nor is it hard to discover three things I'm grateful for that day. I may even need to increase that number. I really do enjoy focusing more on the positive things and letting the negative things go. Sure negative things still happen, but dwelling on them makes them worse.

I did some major cleaning/organizing this past weekend. It seems to me that organizing is another way to feel happier. When everything is disorganized and thrown all over the place with no order, it seems that my thinking is the same way. Once everything is back in it's place, I feel calm inside.

One of my organizing tasks was to go through some yarn I have, mostly ends and leftovers. I have a lot of left over sock yarn, mostly because I've made a lot of socks. It's funny, I don't consider myself a huge sock knitter, but it seems I always have a pair on the needles. It's a portable project and for me, that's important. I'm always running around so having a small project to work on is key.

A few years ago (that's right, I said years) I decided to start a project made entirely out of leftover sock yarn. It's a simple granny square blanket where I lined each square with a black border. In all those years, this picture shows how far I've gotten. I'm not even much of a crocheter, but occasionally I feel like doing something different.

Each square is about 3.5" x 3.5" I estimate the total blanket size so far is about 3' x 4'

Given how long it's taken me to get this far, I imagine it's still going to be another couple of years before I finish this thing. I haven't even decided at this point how big I want the finished project to be. I'll probably settle for a nice lap-sized blanket because it seems my attention is being diverted to another project that uses up old sock yarn leftovers...

Meet the Beekeeper's Quilt. This is my version as it stands. Another project that will probably take years to complete. I suppose that's alright as long as I have more people to knit socks for. Actually, at this point, I've been knitting socks for so long that some of my first socks need replacing because they are wearing through. (I've been knitting for about 14 years, so yeah... even nylon won't stand up to that kind of wear!)

8 comments:

  1. You are my hero! I'm trying to cut down on my own stash via a secret project! Your blankets are looking amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh, secret project! I hope it's revealed soon!

      Delete
  2. Very cool! I've seen a Beekeeper's quilt project where the little hexagons were sewed into a chair cushion. I think that's about all I could handle before I went insane. You hexagon colors all match so nicely!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen those cushions too and I'm contemplating making something like that for my nieces. We'll see!

      Delete
  3. I've been thinking of doing the same type of ongoing project with my left over sock yarns. This is motivational for me! Do you like the Bee Keeper's pattern? I thought about trying to learn crochet just to make granny squares, but my ambition to do so hasn't gotten me very far. :-(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The puffs are definitely addicting. They only take about 30 mins a piece so you really feel like you're getting somewhere.

      Delete
  4. I totally love this! Your colours are fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! They're all the colors I love. It helps that they go together well!

      Delete